"Thomas is one of those outstanding Southern writers – seemingly soft, languid, maybe even lazy, when actually what he is, is cotton wrapped about a razor. Half the time you don't even know he's gotten you until it's too late." – Charles L. Grant

A former newspaper reporter and TV news producer, Thomas is an award winning writer, essayist and playwright. He writes suspense that delves into the darker side of our nature while examining the more noble aspects of who we are.

The Latest

Unthinkable Choice is available now (ghosted)

My short story, "Mother and Child Reunion," has been picked up for a future broadcast of Tales to Terrify.

My short story, "The Heart is a Determined Hunter," was featured in The Horror Zine.

You can now hear my story, "The Heart is a Determined Hunter," free on Tales to Terrify. Click the image below to listen.

Tales to Terrify

SOMETHING STIRS

For more information about my supernatural suspense novel, Something Stirs, click on the cover to go to the Something Stirs site.

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Jerry Jenkins wrote about the rapture and its aftermath and some folks got upset. James Byron Huggins was one of the first writers to put a little edge in Christian fiction with his book The Reckoning and there were those among us who had a cow. God dictated a book about the ultimate salvation of the world and after thousands of years people are still calling Him names and crying foul. And even those who write the softer side of Christian fiction (Romance for those of you who came in late), can’t escape the wrath of those who think Christians shouldn’t write fiction.

So what’s a writer to do?

The best thing we can do is keep writing. Christian authors (and secular authors as well) understand that a novel, regardless of genre, is simply a vehicle used to convey a message. Or at the very least it’s a form of entertainment. As for being a vehicle for messages, in another time and place, such things were called parables. Jesus used those a lot because they are effective. And who better to learn from?

Christian fiction authors are most often confronted with the argument that Christians shouldn’t write fiction (regardless of genre), but that seems more than a little narrow-minded to me. If we are called to spread the gospel (and I believe I read in “The Manual“* that we are supposed to do just that), does that mean we are relegated to simply going door to door and not using our God-given talent?

I don’t think so.

If the fact that we are writing entertainments (as James Patterson says) is the problem, shouldn’t someone be writing entertainments that come from a Christian point of view and promote a Christian message? Or should we sit around looking pious and telling other people making an honest effort to spread the gospel that they are doing it wrong (I know … I just quit preaching and went to meddling)?

It’s a story and story is a powerful communication tool. One which has been used for thousands of years. Before there was written language there was story. And story has, since its inception, been used as a vehicle to convey the teller’s message. And what greater message can we offer than that of the power of God at work in the world.

To paraphrase the old country song, if telling the truth is wrong, I don’t want to be right.